978 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JouRNAL. [1 Aprir, 1898. 
oversea or overland. Thus anyone proposing to start fruitgrowing to-day does 
so under vastly different conditions to those under which the pioneers of the 
industry began it forty years ago, and they start with every factor to success 
in their favour. 
STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
By A. PITMAN CORRIE. 
SrrawBeERRY culture is quite a fine art, and when one has learned it he has 
reason to be as proud as the man who, by self-help, has attained a degree of 
mental culture. Such at least is my idea. But the eye with which I view the 
strawberry may have a squint. Judgment may be warped; I may have a 
prejudice in its favour, for I remember that that which moved me profoundly 
» in reference to the strawberry was not—its flayour, over which some go into 
raptures, but—a book written by an M.A. of Cambridge, entitled ‘‘ How to 
grow, how to pick, and how to eat—[mark you! how to eat|—the strawberry.’ 
Of this volume I could not say— 
So by false learning is good sense, 
but accepted it with its defaced hall-mark of wit and learning. It seemed to 
shed a halo of glory around the strawberry, and at once made its culture, 
instead of a prosaic occupation, a fine art indeed. 
Now, ’tis true the strawberry is only a very “little member,” but those who 
- cultivate it appear to have been profoundly influenced in its favour, for they 
usually boast great things concerning it; and—they are justified. Consider, 
for example, the growers of Razorback, Blackall Range. Allowing journalistic 
latitude (which, by the way, must not be confounded with poetic license), we 
may say of them, “‘ They toil not, neither do they spin.” Not that they have 
discovered the art of living without work, but seem to have discovered the art 
of getting the greatest out of the least. And the discovery of this is of more 
importance than the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone so long, and vainly, 
sought. | 
The returns these growers obtained last season are astonishing, and the 
figures form-highly palatable food for reflection. One producer, in conversation 
on the subject, said, “I will not tell you what I made last season from a plot 
measuring an acre, because, if I did, people would discredit the statement:” 
And neither will I speak concerning the profits of the past harvest, nor predict 
respecting the incoming season, for the figures might appear fabulous, and the 
speculations quixotic. But I cannot refrain from winking the other eye in a 
knowing way, and dropping a ‘hint in passing. Now, when the grower gets 
2s. a quart, and can, in the height of the season, pick twice a day, his returns - 
ought to be fairly large! 
' Yet, with respect to Razorback, when the settlers now in occupation 
began to go thither their friends thought it a crazy enterprise. Razorback has 
an altitude of nearly 2,000 feet above sea level, and is inland about five miles 
from the North Coast line, Palmwoods being its railway station. Four or five 
years ago it was an inaccessible spot, but since then fair roads have been made. 
However, the ascent of the range is still abrupt and continuous, the climb 
arduous, and the journey quite an undertaking. But from the summit of the 
range a grand panoramic view is presented—a sweeping view, unfolding north- 
wards and southwards with the broad Pacific at'the base of the everlasting 
hills. The outlook alone is considered ample reward for the climb. The soil, 
too, is splendid—chocolate-coloured and of great depth. The greater part is 
scrub land, and when felled, burnt off, and light and> air admitted, the soil 
becomes friable and most prolific, granting its “bliss at labour’s earnest call.” 5 
